Identity theft on the rise

Irv OslinPublished: September 13, 2006 12:00AM

By IRV OSLIN
T-G Staff Writer
Area residents are finding out in droves how easy it is for thieves to get their credit and debit card numbers and run up a tab.
What could be more disturbing is perpetrators can encode those numbers onto virtually any card with a magnetic strip and siphon cash from bank accounts.
Until about three months ago, local law enforcement agencies received only a few reports a month of unauthorized purchases on credit and debit cards. That changed late this spring, according to detective Joel Icenhour of the City Police Department.
We noticed in June that we started getting a sudden influx of these, Icenhour said.
The Police Department and Sheriffs Office each receive one or two complaints a day of unauthorized transactions on credit or debit cards. Most of the unauthorized transactions are made in foreign countries or out-of-state.
Theres a reason for this, according to Icenhour. Brokers buy and sell batches of account numbers online and use them far away from the source. This makes it virtually impossible for local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute, he explained.
Furthermore, many of the account numbers are used to purchase gift certificates, which have no mechanism linking them to the purchaser. The gift certificates often are sold at a discount on the black market.
Icenhour has seen other patterns emerging here. Certain banks in Ashland, Wayne and Knox counties are being targeted and the average victim is about 48 years old.
Its not hard to see why older residents would be attractive to thieves.
You have to ask yourself who has the most money, Icenhour said. A 50-year-old is going to have more than a 20-year-old.
Computer savvy thieves are able to obtain not just account numbers but personal information online. They can determine the ages, addresses, Social Security numbers and even the maiden names of their victims mothers.
Local investigators are trying to determine how the perpetrators got this information in the first place.
It can be as simple as writing down a number or hacking into a system, Icenhour said.
Ultimately, this information can end up in the hands of crooks who have the equipment to re-encode magnetic strips on credit cards or any similar plastic card. The cards dont even have to match the information on the strip because customers typically swipe them through card readers and merchants never see them.
In many cases, the perpetrators dont have to sign for purchases and, even if they do, they can sign any name they want, Icenhour pointed out.
The losses, which typically have been several hundred dollars each, are absorbed by the banks. For now.
Ultimately, that will be passed on to consumers, Icenhour believes.
Id like to see merchants made more accountable, he said.
Even though card holders arent responsible for the dollar loss, they can be saddled with bounced check fees if the unauthorized charges deplete their accounts.
Preventing this type of theft is practically impossible. Even at the international and federal levels, arrests are rare. However, victims or potential victims can minimize their losses by keeping a close eye on all bank accounts, according to Icenhour.
Go online and check your accounts often, he said. The quicker you notice the better.
Some people might be reluctant to check their accounts on the Internet for fear it could make them more vulnerable to hackers. However, it doesnt matter whether they go online or not because the banks and merchants do business that way and the information already is out there.
Icenhour doesnt expect the problem to go away anytime soon. Not just because credit and debit card fraud is hard to investigate and prosecute but because of the perpetrators mindset.
Part of this, he believes, is because they are miles or continents away and never see their victims.
The conscience isnt there, he said. In a lot of peoples minds, its not a crime.
n Irv Oslin can be reached at 419-281-0581 ext. 240 or at ioslin@ times-gazette.com.